Set out the Wrongs Act discount for future economic loss
MaintainedLast reviewed
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- From the earnings material the lawyer supplies, build an assumptions table and leave the discount rate blank. The tool does not choose the assumptions or calculate a present value.
- What the lawyer must review
- Confirm Part VB applies. Section 28C excludes transport-accident Parts 3, 6 and 10, and workplace Part 7.
- Use the section 28I percentage the regulations prescribe, or 5 per cent if no percentage is prescribed.
- Apply section 28F: each week of loss of earnings at three times average weekly earnings at the date of the award.
- The lawyer chooses the assumptions and the rate. The discount-rate regulations were not opened.
Rules that apply
The document starts from the task name. Change it if this piece of work is different.
The work product
Forum. Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic), Part VB future economic loss
Produce. An assumptions table with the discount rate left blank for the lawyer.
Have ready. Earnings and capacity material supplied by the lawyer; Whether Part VB applies; The lawyer's check of any prescribed discount percentage.
Example of the limit. Illustrative example: The table lists the lawyer's earnings assumption and a blank rate. It does not multiply out a present value. The lawyer checks the regulations and then decides whether the fallback in section 28I(2)(b) is the rate to use.
Stop and hand it back when
- The table inserts 5 per cent without the lawyer having checked for a prescribed percentage.
- The award is excluded by section 28C.
Sources for this task were checked on 2026-10-23.
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | From the earnings material the lawyer supplies, build an assumptions table and leave the discount rate blank. The tool does not choose the assumptions or calculate a present value. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Use section 28I only for a lump sum component of economic loss referable to the future.
- Leave the rate blank until the lawyer checks whether regulations prescribe a percentage. If none is prescribed, the section states 5 per cent.
- Do not add a requirement to state a percentage possibility. No section opened for this task says that.
- Apply the section 28F weekly cap separately. It uses average weekly total earnings of all employees in Victoria for the most recent reference period available to the court.
Forms and precedents for this task
| Form or precedent | Kind | AI use | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schedule of damages for a personal injury claim | Court document | AI use Yellow | Heads of damage for a plaintiff claim, with the Victorian, Queensland and New South Wales limits, in a form that can be adapted to a Queensland statement of loss and damage. |
| Economic loss workings: past, future and superannuation | Other | AI use Yellow | Workings for loss of earning capacity, the three-times earnings cap, the discount rate, superannuation at the rate for each period, and tax on weekly payments that must be repaid gross. |
| Letter of instruction to a forensic accountant | Letter | AI use Yellow | Letter asking a forensic accountant to calculate past and future loss of earning capacity on stated assumptions, with the discount rate, percentage and superannuation rate left for the lawyer. |
| Letter of instruction to a vocational assessor | Letter | AI use Yellow | Letter asking a vocational assessor for realistic occupations, hours and sourced earnings, without a diagnosis, an impairment score or a valuation. |
| Letter of instruction to an actuary on future loss | Letter | AI use Yellow | Letter asking an actuary to value future earnings and future treatment streams on the lawyer's assumptions, with the rate, percentage and life table left blank. |
Signed-in accounts can read the full text of each one. All precedents.
Sources
- Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic), section 28I · 2026-10-23
- Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic), section 28F · 2026-10-23
- Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic), section 28C · 2026-10-23
Section 28I(3) says that, except as that section provides, other law on discounting damages is not affected.
Part VB does not apply to the transport-accident and workplace awards excluded by section 28C.
Keep health, wage and scheme records in a firm-controlled tool. Apply ASCR r 9 and APP 11, and consider whether any breach is notifiable under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).